Networking, Forums and Clubs, OH MY!

Hello everyone! I am your new Thursday Ambassador.    It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I am honored to be here.  I am going to share some of my photos, though this post is geared toward networking and meeting other photographers.

Joining groups and getting involved in your field of study can be one of the best moves a photography student can make.  Networking, clubs, online forums are just a few of the ways you can really make your presence known, and get your name out.  You can also gain valuable inside information into the market, and learn about new and old techniques (and maybe share your own).  Getting involved in your career and meeting like-minded people will be very important for your photography career.

Google+ is a great place to start, especially with the Photography Student Professional Network.  In fact I highly recommend that you start here, since this online community is specifically for the Art Institutes online students. Here we can connect with faculty and other students, and post our work, if we care to.  There is a wealth of information specifically geared toward AI students, and everyone is very welcoming (I found from experience).

Connections is another AI-based platform to connect with other students and faculty.  Connections has chat rooms, and groups to join, based on your career path, be it graphics design or photography, or one of the many other majors AI offers.  

PhotographyTalk is a great place to meet photographers from all over the world.   This is another social-networking platform, with the exception that this one is solely for photographers.  There are different groups, and blogs, and if you don't see a blog or forum you are looking for, you can create your own.

The Photography Forum by SLR Lounge has contests photographers can enter, tutorials for different programs, and threads where you can post your work and have it critiqued by other photographers, outside of school.  The articles are awesome and very informative (especially for college students who are still learning).

Nothing beats joining a local photography club in your area for getting connected with local photographers.  Running a search using your preferred search engine should lead you in their direction, if there are any where you are.  I was surprised to find that there is a club in Carson City, NV, a few miles from where I live.

Below I have included links to all the websites I mentioned above, aside from a search engine. (This is my first post, so I am not certain I submitted the links correctly.  If they don't work, you can copy and paste them.)

http://www.photographytalk.com/

https://plus.google.com/

http://www.slrlounge.com/forums/forum.php

*http://aiconnect.thecampuscommon.com/

*I am not certain if the link to Connections will work. You have to be signed into the Campus Common to access it.  If the link doesn’t work, simply sign into the Common, hover over the tab that says “Campus Life”. In the drop-down menu click on “Get Connected”, and when the screen refreshes, click the button that says “Get Connected”.   If you have any problems opening Connections from there, you will probably need to disable your pop-up blocker. 

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I hope everyone has a great day!

My First Club & MM Shooting!

Hello again and welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!

We have talked in the past about becoming members of several organizations that are there to help us.  With some of us finishing our studies, we are looking for ways to keep our skills up to part and keep shooting after graduation.  Networking is always important in our field, meeting new people and interacting with them is vital to keep our presence fresh out there in the community and in the internet.

This last week I joined with a local Photography group in Killeen, TX just to see what it was all about.  The group meets every other week sometimes in the weekends and sometimes in the middle of the week.  This was a great way to meet other people that see photography as a passion while at the same time getting to know other professionals in the fields of make-up and hair styling.  They had two models that are listed on Model Mayhem coming over for some constructive criticism and for us to see and listen to their point of view when it came to posing them and taking their images.  After the presentation we had time to set up the studio equipment and practice some studio shooting.  Below are some of the images I took that day.

            

At the end of the meeting they signed some model release forms for us so we are able to use the images on out websites, the flip side was that we also gave her permission to use our images for her profile.

There were some Pro's as well as some Con's about doing all this, let me explain:

Pro's
1.  I met some people in my field of study and passion,that understood where I come from when dealing with photography.
2.  Networking and meeting hair stylist and MUA's that are part of the group.
3.  I use their equipment, Alien Bees and 48" Beauty dishes, their backgrounds and props.
4.  Membership for the group is free, we split the cost of the paid assignment for the model, the other model used TFP (time for prints).
5.  I got to practice with a new model that I have never met and got her critique about my techniques.
6.  I have new images that I can use on my website.

Con's
1.  Shooting time was limited, we did three rounds with 3 minutes of shooting every time.
2.  Concept was somewhat missing as we all shot a standard setting, the model selected the poses.
3.  No variations in the set up and the lights since they had to be done in a way that minimized preparation time between shooters.
4.  No control over the lighting.
5.  The membership is open with amateurs, new photographers, hobbyist, professionals all being in the same group when shooting began.

As you can see there were some good points as well as others that could be addressed to the coordinator.  But the overall point is very simple; networking helps you!

Do not sit still and just do what your studies require you to do, go out there and meet people and be part of something!  Do some research and see what is offered around your community when it comes to photography groups or clubs, they can offer some interesting options for you,and who knows, you might end up expanding your area of operations!

Go out and see what you can find, it doesn't have to be a big organization, this group only has 40 members and the shootings are first come first served with variety in the subject matter.  You can share what you are learning and see how it is done out there in the real world (more or less).

Have a great and fantastic Tuesday!